Navy SEAL Found Not Guilty on Assault Charges

NORFOLK, Va. -- A military jury in Virginia found a Navy SEAL not guilty Thursday on charges of punching a suspected Iraqi terrorist.

The jury deliberated nearly two hours before returning their verdict Thursday in the court-martial of Petty Officer 2nd Class Matthew McCabe, according to Fox News.

The 24-year-old Perrysburg, Ohio, man was tried at Naval Station Norfolk on accusations of assaulting Ahmed Hashim Abed, who is suspected of plotting the 2004 slayings of four U.S. contractors in Fallujah.

The defense suggested throughout the trial that Abed employed a standard terrorist tactic of feigning injury, perhaps even biting his own lip to spill blood onto his clothing.

The verdict followed four days of pre-trial motions, jury selection and testimony before a Judge Advocate General at the Naval Station Norfolk.

Earlier, another Navy SEAL charged was acquitted in connection with the Abed case, That SEAL, Petty Officer First Class Julio Huertas, took the stand for the defense Thursday morning.

Huertas said that he and the other two Navy SEALs, McCabe and Jonathan Keefe, visited the detention facility where Abed was being held, but that there was no assault.

Both Huertas and Keefe were found not guilty last month in separate trials in Baghdad.

NORFOLK, Va. -- A military jury in Virginia found a Navy SEAL not guilty Thursday on charges of punching a suspected Iraqi terrorist.
The jury deliberated nearly two hours before returning their verdict Thursday in the court-martial of Petty Officer 2nd Class Matthew...